Saturday, December 31, 2011

F. O. Stone Baking Co.

Opened in the summer of 1916 at the corner of Phelps, Thomas and McKinney Avenues. Owner F.O. Stone had previously opened bakeries in Cincinnati and in Atlanta, but this two-story brick manufacturing plant, built for $35,000, was his biggest endeavor. The sole product of the plant was six varieties of soft cakes made with butter and wrapped in wax paper packages to sell at local grocery stores. The 60-ft wide white tile oven was considered something of a novelty, as it baked the cakes via radiation heat and not by direct flame. The plant could produce 3,000 cakes an hour, and the 8 oz. cakes originally sold for 10 cents apiece.

In 1919 the company acquired Southern Baking Company and announced that the Dallas plant would be enlarged at a cost of $150,000. It also changed its name to Campbell-Stone Baking Company. "Stone's Cakes" became "Campbell Capital Cakes" . Sometime around 1930 the company became The Continental Baking Company. Even in those days you couldn't count on your favorite brand being around for long.